Sussex Police said East was a CCTV operator for Brighton and Hove Council, when in July last year, police CCTV operators found that he was zooming in on children at The Level park in Brighton ‘without any proper reason’.

Police added that while there was no evidence that East has committed specific criminal offences in doing so, officers investigated, and devices found at his home contained more than 2,000 indecent images of children, including images of the most serious nature.

Detective Chief Inspector Pierre Serra of the Brighton Safeguarding Investigations Unit said: “The indecent images were found on his home computer system and were unrelated to his work. All came from the Internet, and there is no evidence that any were of local children.”

Sussex Police said CCTV in the city is operated jointly by the council and Sussex Police. Council operators use the cameras for traffic monitoring and related enforcement only.